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    October 15, 2018

    Capacity Assessment

    On this page, you will find resources for: 

    • Lawyers 
    • Judges 
    • Psychologists
    • Physicians 

    For Lawyers

    PRACTICAL Guide--A Guardianship Practice Tool

    This resource guide aims to help lawyers identify and implement decision-making options for persons with disabilities that are less restrictive than guardianship. “PRACTICAL” is an acronym for nine steps lawyers can use in case analysis to identify legal and practical approaches to heighten self-determination before moving ahead with guardianship.

    Learn more about the PRACTICAL Guide and Tool

    Developing Dementia Capable Legal Professionals (Hawaii Training, Feb. 2015)

    Legal Issues and Alzheimer’s Webinar Series

    • Part 1: For Legal Professionals Working with People with Dementia and Assessing Client Capacity by Erica Wood, Esq., and Jane Tilly, DrPH (November 2012)

    Assessment of Older Adults with Diminished Capacity: A Handbook for Lawyers

    This book offers ideas and makes suggestions for attorneys who wish to balance the competing goals of autonomy and protection as they confront the difficult challenges of working with older adults with problems in decision-making capacity. 2005, reprinted 2007.

    Order a printed copy or a complete PDF download from the ABA Webstore.

    Competency: Reforming Our Legal Fictions

     by Charles Sabatino and Suzzanna L. Bassinger, Journal of Mental Health and Aging, pp. 119- 144 (2000).

    For Judges

    Judicial Determination of Capacity of Older Adults in Guardianship Proceedings

    This book contains practical tools to equip a wide audience of judges to conduct any form of guardianship proceeding more effectively. Includes links to expanded information, work sheets, and model forms. 2006.

    For Physicians

    New Online Course for Primary Care Physicians and Other Clinicians on Assessment of Capacity of Older Adults  

    Rush University Medical Center and the Commission on Law and Aging have released an interactive online education curriculum on assessing the capacity of older adults, funded by The Retirement Research Foundation. The course is timely because demographic, technological, medical and other vast changes affecting medical professionals are making capacity assessment a growing challenge. The curriculum is aimed at physicians but valuable for all health care clinicians and students. A press release with more details is available here.

    Assessment of Older Adults with Diminished Capacity: A Handbook for Psychologists

    This handbook is designed for psychologists evaluating civil capacities of older adults. 2008. 146 pp.

    Articles

    Evaluating the Capacity to Drive, by Erica F. Wood, Bifocal, Vol. 37, No. 4. March – April 2016

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